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Updated Nov. 13, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET

Search "cancer" on Amazon and you will turn up literally thousands of books—from miracle cures to dense scientific texts. Harder to come by are books that provide the lay reader with insights into the major advances in modern cancer treatment and reliable portraits of the doctors and patients behind them. Some of the best were written several years ago, but they are well worth tracking down.

In 2007, Harvard doctor David Nathan published "The Cancer Treatment Revolution"—a subject he knows well as the former...